Illegal Silicone Butt Injections Cause Host of Health Problems

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In the hopes of achieving fuller buttocks, some women opt to get
illegal injections of silicone that can cause a host of health
complications. Problems range from tissue hardening and pain to
infections, breathing problems and even life-threatening blood
clots.

It's not clear whether the number of people getting these illegal
injections is on the rise, but some doctors say they've seen an
increase in patients who've had the procedure.

Just this month, a 34-year-old woman from Maryland died after
receiving the illegal injections in New York, according to news
reports. Another woman, named Sophelay Ouk, was hospitalized 25
times after her injections, and is now undergoing treatment in
New York to have the silicone removed.

"I am seeing an increase in the number of people who've had it
done, who are coming to see me" said Dr. Tansar Mir, a plastic
surgeon at Lenox Hill Hospital, who is treating Ouk. Mir
estimated that he's seen several dozen patients with
silicon buttocks injections in the last two and a half years.
"There's an increase in awareness for sure" about the procedure,
Mir said.

But these injections are dangerous; they are not approved by the
Food and Drug Administration, and most are done by nonlicensed
practitioners, Mir said. [ Video:
Butt Enhancement Is Dangerous (Caution: graphic medical
images)]

Patients often don't know exactly what substance is being
injected into them, Mir said. It's usually non-medical-grade
silicone, meaning silicone that could be picked up at the
hardware store and that is not sterile.

But there have been some reports of women who were injected with
tire sealant, mineral oil, baby oil and even cement, Mir said. In
2011, an unlicensed practitioner was arrested, and later sent to
jail, for reportedly injecting women with cement and tire
sealant,
according to ABC News.

Even when actual silicone is used, it can cause problems, Mir
said. Injected silicone can stay within the fat tissue, but it
can also sometimes get into the veins and spread to other parts
of the body, causing blood clots, he said. If the blood supply to
an artery becomes blocked, it can lead to limb loss, Mir said.

Patients can also experience infections because the silicone
injections compromise their immune
systems.

"These foreign materials are not meant to be freely floating in
the body," Mir said. "The patient's immune system becomes
comprised because the majority of the immune cells are being
occupied fighting the foreign material in the buttocks," Mir
said.

Ouk experienced a blockage in her lungs, and also infections, Mir
said.

Not everyone experiences life-threatening symptoms from the
injections. More common symptoms are pain, burning, itching and
swelling in the injection area, or skin changes, Mir said.
Patients can experience skin hardening because the pressure and
scar tissue in the area (caused by the immune system's response)
impair the blood supply to the skin. As a result of the loss of
blood supply, the skin tissue can start to die, Mir said.

Even if women don't experience health problems right away, they
may have problems later. Mir said he's treated women who had
symptoms 15 to 20 years after their injections.

Very few U.S. plastic surgeons will treat patients who've had
illegal silicone buttocks injections, Mir said. Many doctors are
not familiar with the disease physiology, or they don't want to
take on a patient who has complications from something done by
another practitioner, Mir said. In addition, "many [doctors]
chastise these patients for allowing an unlicensed practitioner
to inject and unknown substance into their bodies," he said.

Some doctors treat these patients with
liposuction and a laser procedure, but Mir said that in his
opinion, this treatment should not be done, because it causes the
silicone to spread to other areas. Instead, what is needed is
surgical excision of the silicone, Mir said.

Mir and his colleagues treated Ouk by cutting out the liquid
silicone and attaching the woman to a machine to drain the
remaining foreign substance over several days. It's too soon to
say whether Ouk's symptoms will go away, but she is already
feeling better, Mir said.